I'm doing some research for my upcoming Csound book. Today I have two
questions.

1) Are many people using SoundFonts in Csound?

2) Can someone suggest a couple of good freeware SoundFonts that I can
download so I can try out the Fluid opcodes?

My assumption (naive, in all likelihood) would be that SoundFonts, being a
consumer-grade format, are kind of opposite in spirit to the cultural ethos
of Csound. That being the case, I'm not sure how much depth I need to give
to my coverage of the Fluid opcodes. Comments on this topic would be
welcome.

Thanks!

--Jim Aikin


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I use SoundFonts in several of my pieces.

What is the "standard" sampler file format for commercial studio work?

And, what may be different, and what is more important, what is the
BEST (i.e. best-SOUNDING) sampler file format for commercial studio
work?

Regards,
Mike

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 12:54 PM, Jim Aikin  wrote:
> I'm doing some research for my upcoming Csound book. Today I have two
> questions.
>
> 1) Are many people using SoundFonts in Csound?
>
> 2) Can someone suggest a couple of good freeware SoundFonts that I can
> download so I can try out the Fluid opcodes?
>
> My assumption (naive, in all likelihood) would be that SoundFonts, being a
> consumer-grade format, are kind of opposite in spirit to the cultural ethos
> of Csound. That being the case, I'm not sure how much depth I need to give
> to my coverage of the Fluid opcodes. Comments on this topic would be
> welcome.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --Jim Aikin
>
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://csound.1045644.n5.nabble.com/Two-Questions-about-FluidSynth-tp4834307p4834307.html
> Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>            https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"
>
>



-- 
Michael Gogins
Irreducible Productions
http://www.michael-gogins.com
Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com


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> What is the "standard" sampler file format for commercial studio work?
> 
> And, what may be different, and what is more important, what is the
> BEST (i.e. best-SOUNDING) sampler file format for commercial studio
> work? 

I suspect your questions are a bit tongue-in-cheek. I don't know if there is
a standard format, though certainly NI Kontakt is a very successful sample
player. The main factor affecting the sound quality will usually, I'm sure,
be not the file format but the amount of care exercised by the sound
developer.

The reason I'm not sure about the quality of SoundFonts has less to do with
the potential quality of the file format itself than with the likely effort
put into the content by developers. SoundFonts were pioneered by Creative
Labs, back in the day when RAM was expensive and most sampled instruments
were small. Creative was primarily a consumer-products company, and I would
suspect that they were sometimes willing (or forced by the technology of the
time) to sacrifice audio quality in favor of other factors.

I'd like to try out the Fluid opcodes, but I don't have any SoundFont files,
neither good nor bad; hence my query.

--JA

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I have a bunch of old SoundFonts that I downloaded from free sites
over the years. Some of these sites are no longer up. I suggest you
google for "free SoundFont".

If your Csound was installed with the Windows installer, you will find
a General MIDI SoundFont: samples\sf_GMbank.sf2. This is used for a
few of the Csound examples. You could download this from SourceForge
if you are on the Mac or something.

Hope this helps,
Mike



On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 2:38 PM, Jim Aikin  wrote:
>> What is the "standard" sampler file format for commercial studio work?
>>
>> And, what may be different, and what is more important, what is the
>> BEST (i.e. best-SOUNDING) sampler file format for commercial studio
>> work?
>
> I suspect your questions are a bit tongue-in-cheek. I don't know if there is
> a standard format, though certainly NI Kontakt is a very successful sample
> player. The main factor affecting the sound quality will usually, I'm sure,
> be not the file format but the amount of care exercised by the sound
> developer.
>
> The reason I'm not sure about the quality of SoundFonts has less to do with
> the potential quality of the file format itself than with the likely effort
> put into the content by developers. SoundFonts were pioneered by Creative
> Labs, back in the day when RAM was expensive and most sampled instruments
> were small. Creative was primarily a consumer-products company, and I would
> suspect that they were sometimes willing (or forced by the technology of the
> time) to sacrifice audio quality in favor of other factors.
>
> I'd like to try out the Fluid opcodes, but I don't have any SoundFont files,
> neither good nor bad; hence my query.
>
> --JA
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://csound.1045644.n5.nabble.com/Two-Questions-about-FluidSynth-tp4834307p4834717.html
> Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>            https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"
>
>



-- 
Michael Gogins
Irreducible Productions
http://www.michael-gogins.com
Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com


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I have had student suse soundfonts from within Csound.  The minimalist
genetic algorithm composer STEVE used them and csound for note lists.

there a number of sf2 files in the manual examples and in the OLPC files

==John ff
>
> The reason I'm not sure about the quality of SoundFonts has less to do
> with
> the potential quality of the file format itself than with the likely
> effort
> put into the content by developers. SoundFonts were pioneered by Creative
> Labs, back in the day when RAM was expensive and most sampled instruments
> were small. Creative was primarily a consumer-products company, and I
> would
> suspect that they were sometimes willing (or forced by the technology of
> the
> time) to sacrifice audio quality in favor of other factors.
>
> I'd like to try out the Fluid opcodes, but I don't have any SoundFont
> files,
> neither good nor bad; hence my query.
>
> --JA
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://csound.1045644.n5.nabble.com/Two-Questions-about-FluidSynth-tp4834307p4834717.html
> Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>             https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe
> csound"
>
>
>
>




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> If your Csound was installed with the Windows installer, you will find
> a General MIDI SoundFont: samples\sf_GMbank.sf2. This is used for a
> few of the Csound examples.

Ah -- thanks. I had no idea that was in the distribution. That enables me to
whip up an example for the book, and the fact that it's included in the
distribution encourages me to think that writing a bit about the Fluid
opcodes is worth the effort. I mean, it's still General MIDI , but it's not impossible that somebody might want to use it for
something, if only a satire of early '80s video game music.

--JA

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Fluid opcodes are not necessarily GM. Their soundfonts can be anything  
really, GM or anything else. They are a general-purpose sample  
playback system. Soundfont is just another format to hold samples.  
Some soundfonts are quite good quality, others are less so.

Regards

Victor

On 24 Sep 2011, at 03:27, Jim Aikin wrote:

>> If your Csound was installed with the Windows installer, you will  
>> find
>> a General MIDI SoundFont: samples\sf_GMbank.sf2. This is used for a
>> few of the Csound examples.
>
> Ah -- thanks. I had no idea that was in the distribution. That  
> enables me to
> whip up an example for the book, and the fact that it's included in  
> the
> distribution encourages me to think that writing a bit about the Fluid
> opcodes is worth the effort. I mean, it's still General MIDI  throat
> noises here>, but it's not impossible that somebody might want to  
> use it for
> something, if only a satire of early '80s video game music.
>
> --JA
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://csound.1045644.n5.nabble.com/Two-Questions-about-FluidSynth-tp4834307p4835747.html
> Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>            https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body  
> "unsubscribe csound"
>

Dr Victor Lazzarini
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Music
NUI Maynooth Ireland
tel.: +353 1 708 3545
Victor dot Lazzarini AT nuim dot ie





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Some links to free soundfonts :
http://soundfonts.homemusician.net/http://www.sf2midi.com/http://www.personalcopy.com/sfarkfonts1.htm http://www22.brinkster.com/guraydere/ 
http://www.natural-studio.co.uk/ 
http://www.fluidfonts.com/ 
http://www.gtown.has.it/ 
http://oui.com.br/nando/p08soundfs2.htm 
http://www.hammersound.net 
http://www.soundfonts.it 
http://www.melodik.net/soundfont/index.asp?liste=i d&syf=1 
http://www.wolod.narod.ru/sf2.htm#ig1 
http://www.papelmedia.de/sf2/sf2_uk_download.htm 
http://www.swgames.com/westgate/free.htm 
http://www.soundcreationsinc.com/splendid/index.ht ml 
http://www.digital-chaos.net/pcdls_download.php 
http://basstardz.dhs.org/SF2/ 
http://www.soundbank.hu/download.html#instrument 

I'm not sure if all these links are still valid. Also it is not too difficult to make your own soundfonts, though a really good editor will cost money. One free soundfont editor is "Viena", available at http://www.synthfont.com , not to be confused with "Vienna", which is one of the best payware soundfont editors.
BW
> From: Victor.Lazzarini@nuim.ie
> To: csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
> Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:41:16 +0100
> Subject: Re: [Csnd] Re: Two Questions about FluidSynth
> 
> Fluid opcodes are not necessarily GM. Their soundfonts can be anything  
> really, GM or anything else. They are a general-purpose sample  
> playback system. Soundfont is just another format to hold samples.  
> Some soundfonts are quite good quality, others are less so.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Victor
> 
> On 24 Sep 2011, at 03:27, Jim Aikin wrote:
> 
> >> If your Csound was installed with the Windows installer, you will  
> >> find
> >> a General MIDI SoundFont: samples\sf_GMbank.sf2. This is used for a
> >> few of the Csound examples.
> >
> > Ah -- thanks. I had no idea that was in the distribution. That  
> > enables me to
> > whip up an example for the book, and the fact that it's included in  
> > the
> > distribution encourages me to think that writing a bit about the Fluid
> > opcodes is worth the effort. I mean, it's still General MIDI  > throat
> > noises here>, but it's not impossible that somebody might want to  
> > use it for
> > something, if only a satire of early '80s video game music.
> >
> > --JA
> >
> > --
> > View this message in context: http://csound.1045644.n5.nabble.com/Two-Questions-about-FluidSynth-tp4834307p4835747.html
> > Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >
> >
> > Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
> >            https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
> > Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
> > To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body  
> > "unsubscribe csound"
> >
> 
> Dr Victor Lazzarini
> Senior Lecturer
> Dept. of Music
> NUI Maynooth Ireland
> tel.: +353 1 708 3545
> Victor dot Lazzarini AT nuim dot ie
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>             https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"
> 
 		 	   		  

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I have used the .sf2 format and the sfplay2 and fluid opcodes with sf2 content that I made using Propellerheads Recycle.  I think it is an efficient and useful way to pack samples, and the ability to have many banks and programs of samples in one file is quite useful.  Also, I have found soundfonts by Ethan Winer and Jason Somerlad, and Westgate Studios, that are excellent (google).


John Clements

On Sep 24, 2011, at 8:21 AM, Brian Wong  wrote:

> 
> Some links to free soundfonts :
> http://soundfonts.homemusician.net/http://www.sf2midi.com/http://www.personalcopy.com/sfarkfonts1.htm http://www22.brinkster.com/guraydere/ 
> http://www.natural-studio.co.uk/ 
> http://www.fluidfonts.com/ 
> http://www.gtown.has.it/ 
> http://oui.com.br/nando/p08soundfs2.htm 
> http://www.hammersound.net 
> http://www.soundfonts.it 
> http://www.melodik.net/soundfont/index.asp?liste=i d&syf=1 
> http://www.wolod.narod.ru/sf2.htm#ig1
> http://www.papelmedia.de/sf2/sf2_uk_download.htm 
> http://www.swgames.com/westgate/free.htm 
> http://www.soundcreationsinc.com/splendid/index.ht ml 
> http://www.digital-chaos.net/pcdls_download.php 
> http://basstardz.dhs.org/SF2/ 
> http://www.soundbank.hu/download.html#instrument 
> 
> I'm not sure if all these links are still valid. Also it is not too difficult to make your own soundfonts, though a really good editor will cost money. One free soundfont editor is "Viena", available at http://www.synthfont.com , not to be confused with "Vienna", which is one of the best payware soundfont editors.
> BW
>> From: Victor.Lazzarini@nuim.ie
>> To: csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
>> Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:41:16 +0100
>> Subject: Re: [Csnd] Re: Two Questions about FluidSynth
>> 
>> Fluid opcodes are not necessarily GM. Their soundfonts can be anything  
>> really, GM or anything else. They are a general-purpose sample  
>> playback system. Soundfont is just another format to hold samples.  
>> Some soundfonts are quite good quality, others are less so.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Victor
>> 
>> On 24 Sep 2011, at 03:27, Jim Aikin wrote:
>> 
>>>> If your Csound was installed with the Windows installer, you will  
>>>> find
>>>> a General MIDI SoundFont: samples\sf_GMbank.sf2. This is used for a
>>>> few of the Csound examples.
>>> 
>>> Ah -- thanks. I had no idea that was in the distribution. That  
>>> enables me to
>>> whip up an example for the book, and the fact that it's included in  
>>> the
>>> distribution encourages me to think that writing a bit about the Fluid
>>> opcodes is worth the effort. I mean, it's still General MIDI >> throat
>>> noises here>, but it's not impossible that somebody might want to  
>>> use it for
>>> something, if only a satire of early '80s video game music.
>>> 
>>> --JA
>>> 
>>> --
>>> View this message in context: http://csound.1045644.n5.nabble.com/Two-Questions-about-FluidSynth-tp4834307p4835747.html
>>> Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>>>           https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
>>> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
>>> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body  
>>> "unsubscribe csound"
>>> 
>> 
>> Dr Victor Lazzarini
>> Senior Lecturer
>> Dept. of Music
>> NUI Maynooth Ireland
>> tel.: +353 1 708 3545
>> Victor dot Lazzarini AT nuim dot ie
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
>>            https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=81968&atid=564599
>> Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here
>> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"
>> 
>                         
> 
> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
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> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"
> 


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